After 10 years of research, the Portuguese company in the field of advanced biotechnology, located in Vila do Bispo, does not hide its ambition to sell the discovery to one of the 'sharks' of the global pharmaceutical industry.

The company is developing the first non-opioid marine analgesic which, if everything goes as planned, will be effective in treating chronic pain without causing dependence or side effects, because it does not centrally affect the brain, said Pedro Lima, a researcher at Sea4US.

“What we have to be developed is an alternative to opioids, morphine and the like, which in fact relieve pain in many cases and others not, but have sometimes terrible side effects”, explained the neurophysiologist and marine biologist, quoted by the agency Lusa.

The company is now carrying out the tests that precede the first clinical trials on humans, and if everything goes as expected, it could move towards licensing and pharmaceutical companies placing the product on the market, which could take around five years.

Sea4Us admits that it does not have the necessary money to carry out all the tests on human guinea pigs and that it would like to sell its project, in about a year and a half, at the beginning of experiments with people.

So far, the company has already invested 1.5 to 2 million euros in this project, with the help of public funds, hoping to continue investing in others, some of which have already started, which will allow it to combat diseases such as overactive bladder, chemotherapy-induced neuropathy or epilepsy.